Dusk comes early there and it might have been around 7 pm or 8 pm when the bus made a stop at a roadside eatery with a neon signage 'Coffee' for us to get down for some refreshment and performed the solat jamak for maghrib and isya. Even though we were on bus no. 6, our bus was the first to arrive at this spot. The driver must have overtook the earlier buses and must be mentioned he was jovial (speaking arabic) all the way...due to the baqsis no doubt hehe. So in the quite cool night air I made my way to a so-called toilet for women for ablutions. The place is a far cry after the comforts of the toilet at Movenpick hotel Madinah... I won't go any further with the description, for to anyone who has been there will know what I'm talking about. There's a compensation though and hubby has not stopped comparing the hot delicious 'mandey' rice served at the eatery with half of a roasted chicken with the ones we had eaten in Makkah or Madinah. I'm a coffee/nescafe person and how nice to have a cup of it to perk me up but sorry only tea with milk was available there...so the coffee signage was only for show..sigh. When the other buses started arriving we were ready to leave the place.

At one point of the journey the driver slowed down in the middle of nowhere (to me ie.), there was a car accident on the other side of the road. I did not get a good view of what hit what...but there was already a small crowd with the police and an ambulance in the middle of nowhere there. Sleep took over and I was awaken by the loud talbiyah of the driver ...Labbaik-Allah hummalabaik..Labbaika lasharika laka labbaik..Innalhamda, wa'ni'mata, lakawal mulk, la sharika lak... thus joined by the voices of the pilgrims signalling we were ready to enter Makkah... "Here I am at your service O Allah, here I am at your service and no partners do you have. Verily, all praise and all bounty belongs to you, and yours alone is the sovereignty. No partners do you have".

It must have been around 11 pm when we arrived at the Abraj Al-Janadriyah, a big brown building which housed the Tabung Haji Headquarters here in Makkah. Likewise in Madinah, there was a small reception waiting for us as we stepped off the bus (we were the first to arrive ..yet again, we must have done something good to be the first to arrive among the nine buses hahaha...just kidding! Only Allah knows best!) This time we were given a small plastic ewer filled with Zam Zam water...Alhamdulillah.

TH cramped 5 other ladies and I in the room below (on the 7th floor)...who am I to complain maybe I did something bad to deserve this hahaha..(padan muka). So there we were, six of us in this small room with not enough space to stash our luggage and personal belongings. Two other beds were not in the picture, the toilet was just outside the room. Interestingly enough all of them were from my own State, one of them was my room mate in Madinah so it was kind of a familiarity when we quickly chose beds next to each other. Three of my room mates were teachers teaching in secondary schools, another room mate a desk officer with the Education Dept and my room mate in Madinah a homemaker (later did I know from one of our many conversations that she was in the same batch as I was taking MCE from the same school in the middle of the 70s and was the best Malay science student for MCE for that particular year, so she was a brilliant homemaker!) Her children made up for what she lacked in achieving her goals in being professionals - a doctor, an engineer, lecturers.

Later did we know that pilgrims from other KTs were given a better deal than us on the upper floors (8th - 15th floors) with larger rooms with enough space to 'solat jemaah' in the middle..huhuhu. Being tolerant was the key being cooped up in a room that is more suited to house 4 persons comfortably. But we all made by even though there were some hitches here and there and we were in a place where our patience will be tested (semua nak haji mabrur).

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Guard Your Heart!

Everything you say or allow into your eyes or ears becomes data that is stored in your heart. That data is later replayed during your prayer. If you want to know what is filling your heart, look at what you think about in your prayer. If you want to guard your heart, guard your eyes, ears and tongue.